Adventures in Teaching Kids How to Code

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Guest Blog: Harry James

We have a very special guest blog post this week from Harry James. He is 15 years old and attends school at Whitley Bay High School. A keen coder, last week Harry completed his work experience with Ignite at Campus North.

Read what Harry has to say about the importance of having Code Clubs in schools and how programming can enhance creativity amongst an already technology-driven generation.

Coding has been around for many years now but it’s only been recently that schools in the UK have adopted the change and made programming part of the curriculum. In the modern age, programming should be a compulsory subject for students to learn – even if they don’t use it towards their career in the future, the way it makes you think will certainly aid them in education. Programming has a host of benefits; problem solving, mathematics, languages and more. Just these few examples show how useful learning a computer language from a young age is for a student.

Kids of the modern age love technology and are are full of creativity; any parent will know that they just love making things. With over ¼ of children aged 3-4 using a tablet computer, it should most definitely be taught to kids how they can develop applications and programs for the computers.

One problem faced by many adults is that they don’t understand the technology of this day – it’s growing incredibly quickly. An Ofcom study found that the majority of 6 year olds knew more about technology than a 45-year old adult. This is where Code Club comes in. At Code Club, there is a range of volunteers who know how to code and are able to teach kids how to program. Code Club is open to anyone aged 9-11 and there are over 2500 clubs in the UK alone! The mentors are able to teach kids all the fundamentals of programming where the kids can then go on to build whatever is in their imagination. If they get stuck on the way, the students can discuss their problems with each other or talk to one of the mentors.

Programming isn’t something that should be taught towards adulthood years – it should be taught from a young age because it makes it easier to understand and introduces a wide skillset to the child, making many other school subjects a whole lot easier.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the Code Club site and take a look at all of the resources on offer to students. They make coding fun, informative and exciting so together, let’s try to expand our community to as many places as possible. If you know anyone who would be interested, be sure to let them know! After all, we rely on people like you reading this to make a difference and get kids coding!